I’m such a tease aren’t I?! After pressing publish on Monday morning’s blog post, I knew that it would be cruel not to share the rest of the gorgeous shots from Sam and Kenny’s beautiful Real Wedding at The Alnwick Garden on the blog. After all, it’s one of the prettiest days I’ve seen. Could these two be any more photogenic?

Once you’ve been there, done that, some back to share the rest of Sam and Kenny’s big day. With images by the ever talented Sean Elliott Photography (who’ll be joining us on September 1st too), this is one to remember.

Sam says: We got engaged in Dubai, in September 2009. Kenny wrote ‘Marry me?’ in rose petals on the bed whilst I was at the pool sunbathing… quite the romantic!

We tied the knot in June at The Alnwick Garden in the Pavilion Room. We felt that the Garden was somewhere different, with stunning grounds for the perfect photos. It’s also a memorable venue for people who hadn’t been before – the grand cascade as the main viewpoint throughout the ceremony, the rose garden, bamboo maze, the tree house and all of the water features gave guests that little something extra, over and above a wedding in a hotel or stately home.

We didn’t have a theme, we just wanted to keep it simple and relaxed – a bit like us! We chose a colour scheme of black and white with pinks and whites in the bouquets and button holes adding a splash of colour.

I wore the Maggie Sottero “Reece” dress from Blush Bridal Boutique in Uppermill, Saddleworth and Kenny wore a kilt, in Morrison Clan tartan… sticking to family tradition. He had it hand-made at Nicholson Kiltmakers in Edinburgh.

The bridesmaids and I had peony rose bouquets with a mix of pinks and some white roses and Kenny had a pink peony buttonhole (to match my bouquet) with Scottish thistles.

Getting ready with my mum and the bridesmaids was great fun, very relaxed and involved quite a lot of champagne!

Guests were taken to the venue by Dreadnought Coaches in the 1952 Leyland Titan. The guests and groomsmen travelled in more style than the bridal party! When boarding the bus, the groom, best man and ushers gave everyone a glass of fizz to get the celebrations started. I think it’s fair to say the journey for the guests was a real social event!

Arco String Quartet played some beautiful music for our guests’ arrival, my entrance, signing the register and at end of the ceremony – including Elbow – One Day Like This – and The Beatles – All You Need Is Love.

Kenny’s father made all of the ladies’ favours by hand – strawberry and champagne preserve, with little poem on the labels: “A spoonful of sugar and two sweet kisses, now Kenny and Sam are Mr and Mrs”.

The best man’s speech was brilliant, one of the best I’ve ever seen. He used a video to really take the mick out of Kenny and had everyone in fits of laughter. ‘Mr Lover Man, Shabba’ was the song of choice for the video… very entertaining! It was also great to have all of our nearest and dearest in one room together as it doesn’t happen all that often!

A friend of ours, DJ James Cummings provided the evening entertainment. We had a small part of the night dedicated to a ceilidh too, which went down really well and Sean Elliott got some great action shots!

After the wedding we did a road trip through California – Vegas, San Francisco, Route 1 with various stop offs including Santa Barbara and Carmel, finishing off in LA, going to the Standard Hotel for their famous rooftop party on the last night of our honeymoon… the perfect end!

My top tips for other Brides Up North would be: don’t get stressed, don’t have massively high expectations that you may find impossible to meet, make sure your wedding reflects you as a couple, no-one else (i.e. don’t try to imitate anyone else, or do something just because you think your guests will like it – if you don’t), and just relax and enjoy every single moment, from planning, right through to sending out your thank you cards!

Its holiday season here on the blog, and as the team take a break until to rest and recharge for the second half of what’s set to be the biggest and best year year yet at Brides Up North HQ, we’ll be leaving you with a reduced blogging schedule so that you still get your daily dose of wedding pretty.

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Usual service will recommence on 1st July 2013, but in the meantime watch out for recaps of our favourite Real Weddings so far in 2013, plenty of eye candy, new features that we won’t be able to wait to share, some special supplier showcases and a couple of surprises too!

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Michelle and Jav’s gorgeous Real Wedding in the North of Scotland – first featured this April – has got to be one of my favourites to date, mixing up just the right amount of fun and frivolity, beauty and elegance.

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I’m impressed by their pretty vintage styling, Michelle’s ability to look flawless when travelling by open topped VW Beetle (does she remind anyone else of a young Elizabeth Taylor?!) and the cool, calm way that all their style choices work together beautifully to exude a sort of old time charm.

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With images by SD Photography, this is one for the Pinterest boards ladies.

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Michelle says: Jav asked me to marry him at home in June 2012, and our big day was the 18th August 2012. Our venues were Holy Trinity Church & Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry, which is in the North of Scotland.

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We chose our venue as it had great surroundings and views and looked like a real Scottish palace!

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Our wedding colours were ivory, pastels and champagne gold with a little vintage style and a bit of elegance!

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My favourite part of the day was walking down the aisle and just the whole of the ceremony actually!

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I chose an ivory dress with a full skirt and some sparkle! It was purchased from Bliss Bridal which is in Dundee. The groomsmen wore The Hunting Pride of Scotland tartan kilts (bottle green with a hint of ivory) and these were from Mccalls of Broughty Ferry, near Dundee.

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My bridesmaids had champagne knee length prom dresses with ivory underskirts, which were all hand finished by a dressmaker we know.

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We travelled in a cool 1970’s ivory beetle with the soft top down from Classic Car Holiday Hire.

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Martin’s Ices brought along their vintage ice cream cart with treats for all our guests.

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I carried a bouquet of pastel pinks, ivory and lilac coloured David Austin roses by Coachhouse Flowers.

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We chose a simple two tier sponge cake which was pale pink with some rose detail (made by the my Uncle).

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We used photo keyrings (taken at our engagement shoot several months before) as favours.

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In the evening we hired “Dead Man’s Shoes” – a classic/contemporary 5 piece band from Glasgow and my best friend sang our first dance song!

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After the wedding we went on honeymoon to Cancun in Mexico!

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to step back for five minutes together to take everything in and watch your loved ones enjoy your day! Oh, and have a videographer – you wouldn’t believe how much you miss when you watch it back!

Its holiday season here on the blog, and as the team take a break until to rest and recharge for the second half of what’s set to be the biggest and best year year yet at Brides Up North HQ, we’ll be leaving you with a reduced blogging schedule so that you still get your daily dose of wedding pretty.

.

Usual service will recommence on 1st July 2013, but in the meantime watch out for recaps of our favourite Real Weddings so far in 2013, plenty of eye candy, new features that we won’t be able to wait to share, some special supplier showcases and a couple of surprises too!

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One of my very favourite Real Weddings ever featured here on the wedding blog, Sarah and Andrew’s riotously gorgeous real wedding in Cheshire courtesy of Brides Up North fave, Jonny Draper Photography first appeared on these pretty pages in February this year.

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There are stunning details, beautiful gowns, super cute kids and men in kilts… what more could you want?!

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Sarah says: We got engaged in Andrew’s home town of Stonehaven, 11th August 2012. We were visiting Andrew’s family and went for a lovely lobster meal at the Tollbooth, overlooking Stonehaven Harbour. Andrew then suggested a walk to the pier head to admire the view and before I knew it he was down on one knee with a beautiful ring and asked the words every girl wants to hear!

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We were married on 19th January 2013 at Sandhole Oak Barn, Congleton. When I saw the barn I fell in love! The views are amazing and there is such a wonderful feel about the whole place. The family who own the barn were so friendly and made the decision very easy… we booked there and then!

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We didn’t have a theme as such but we really liked the idea of the barn being lit up with fairy lights as in January, it would be dark early and we thought it would make the place more magical. I’d been looking at quite vintage colours for flowers and the mercury silver glass just seemed to follow, along with tealights everywhere! The moustache and lips on the wedding stationary seemed fun and our friend Rebecca Morris sourced letter pressing, designed and printed them all for us.

.The colour scheme found itself really, grey/silver for the bridesmaids with the Tartan having grey and purple thrown in. I chose quite muted colours for the flowers, amnesia, memory lane and ivory to stick with the vintage glamour look, and of course had sea holly (thistle) to keep the Scottish heritage up!

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I decided on the Pronovias Alcanar gown as I loved the corded lace. I bought it at Dan Kerr Brides in Preston. Kaye was fab and couldn’t have been more helpful. The gown was nothing like I had imagined I would wear but everybody says don’t rule anything out until you’ve tried it on and it’s true!

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I had quite a challenge with choosing the bridesmaids’ outfits as my chief Bridesmaid, Jackie, was 34 weeks pregnant on our wedding day! Also, Andrew had decided to have his sister as Best Woman so we thought it would be nice to have her in the same dress as the bridesmaids but in black. In the end, I decided on the Two Birds Bridesmaid dresses as they were so versatile, maternity friendly and I loved the way the girls all wore a different style but were actually in the same dress! I bought them from Swan Brides in Congleton, the colour was Charcoal (and I’m very jealous that I don’t have one myself!)

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We were very aware of the cold, snowy weather so we provided an old vintage suitcase full of blankets for our guests to use when the were outside to stop them freezing! We had lace cones of confetti to hand out to guests during the ceremony and lace handkerchiefs to wipe away any tears! My Dad organised a bagpiper to pipe Andrew and the guests into the Barn as he was getting married so far from home. It was a total surprise and so touching to her the pipes over the wind. Just perfect, it made many shed a tear! The poor piper was frozen though!

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The whole day was amazing, but my favourite part was standing in front of our family and friends and saying my vows to my husband… and walking out of (practically skipping!) the service through a confetti cloud to Stevie Wonder’s Signed Sealed Delivered!

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My Dads’ side of the family still own and run Cornall’s Market Garden in Walton Le Dale, Preston so having them design our flowers only seemed right! The bouquet was very informal, made up of amnesia, memory lane and avalanche roses for the vintage feel with sea holly brought in to tie in with Andrew’s Scottish heritage. I had photographs of our grandparents pinned onto my bouquet , and I carried a photograph of my Aunt who recently passed away so that they were with us on our special day.

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We had the fabulous Top Table catering on the day and they couldn’t have been better. Annette organised the day wonderfully, ensuring every last detail was executed to perfection! I’ve had texts, phone calls and emails galore saying how wonderful they all were and that the food was amazing! They really are a brilliant team and couldn’t recommend them highly enough.

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We gave the task of organising our wedding cake to my dad, which he did very well! We just asked for a pretty, simple cake that tasted good, and it ticked the boxes! Made by 2nice2slice in Preston.

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The entertainment was really important to us as we both love a good party and wanted everyone to dance their socks off! We chose The Coolers Band and Andy Murphy DJ to entertain and they did just that! The dance floor was never empty and everyone had a fantastic time! Even uncles who normally watch from afar were up chucking some shapes…

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We’ve got a lovely 14 month old son, Thomas, so leaving him for a honeymoon wasn’t an option and we are moving to Abu Dhabi in March so we’re pretty tight on time! We did however manage to squeeze our first night away together since Thomas was born and we went to The Mere Hotel and Spa in Knutsford.

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to plan your morning so you’re all made up and hair done a good hour before you have to leave. The last moments before you walk down the aisle are so precious and you need time to treasure them with those that mean the most around you (and if you’ve chosen your girls well, you’ll have a few tears and a bloody good laugh!) Oh, and Pinterest is fabulous for getting together lots of ideas…

Let’s get this week off to a glorious start, with Sarah and Andrew’s riotously gorgeous real wedding in Cheshire courtesy of Brides Up North fave, Jonny Draper Photography. There are stunning details, beautiful gowns, super cute kids and men in kilts… what more could you want?!

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Sarah says: We got engaged in Andrew’s home town of Stonehaven, 11th August 2012. We were visiting Andrew’s family and went for a lovely lobster meal at the Tollbooth, overlooking Stonehaven Harbour. Andrew then suggested a walk to the pier head to admire the view and before I knew it he was down on one knee with a beautiful ring and asked the words every girl wants to hear!

.

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.

.

.

.

.

.

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We were married on 19th January 2013 at Sandhole Oak Barn, Congleton. When I saw the barn I fell in love! The views are amazing and there is such a wonderful feel about the whole place. The family who own the barn were so friendly and made the decision very easy… we booked there and then!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

We didn’t have a theme as such but we really liked the idea of the barn being lit up with fairy lights as in January, it would be dark early and we thought it would make the place more magical. I’d been looking at quite vintage colours for flowers and the mercury silver glass just seemed to follow, along with tealights everywhere! The moustache and lips on the wedding stationary seemed fun and our friend Rebecca Morris sourced letter pressing, designed and printed them all for us.

.The colour scheme found itself really, grey/silver for the bridesmaids with the Tartan having grey and purple thrown in. I chose quite muted colours for the flowers, amnesia, memory lane and ivory to stick with the vintage glamour look, and of course had sea holly (thistle) to keep the Scottish heritage up!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I decided on the Pronovias Alcanar gown as I loved the corded lace. I bought it at Dan Kerr Brides in Preston. Kaye was fab and couldn’t have been more helpful. The gown was nothing like I had imagined I would wear but everybody says don’t rule anything out until you’ve tried it on and it’s true!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I had quite a challenge with choosing the bridesmaids’ outfits as my chief Bridesmaid, Jackie, was 34 weeks pregnant on our wedding day! Also, Andrew had decided to have his sister as Best Woman so we thought it would be nice to have her in the same dress as the bridesmaids but in black. In the end, I decided on the Two Birds Bridesmaid dresses as they were so versatile, maternity friendly and I loved the way the girls all wore a different style but were actually in the same dress! I bought them from Swan Brides in Congleton, the colour was Charcoal (and I’m very jealous that I don’t have one myself!)

.

.

.

.

.

.

We were very aware of the cold, snowy weather so we provided an old vintage suitcase full of blankets for our guests to use when the were outside to stop them freezing! We had lace cones of confetti to hand out to guests during the ceremony and lace handkerchiefs to wipe away any tears! My Dad organised a bagpiper to pipe Andrew and the guests into the Barn as he was getting married so far from home. It was a total surprise and so touching to her the pipes over the wind. Just perfect, it made many shed a tear! The poor piper was frozen though!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The whole day was amazing, but my favourite part was standing in front of our family and friends and saying my vows to my husband… and walking out of (practically skipping!) the service through a confetti cloud to Stevie Wonder’s Signed Sealed Delivered!

.

.

.

.

.

.

My Dads’ side of the family still own and run Cornall’s Market Garden in Walton Le Dale, Preston so having them design our flowers only seemed right! The bouquet was very informal, made up of amnesia, memory lane and avalanche roses for the vintage feel with sea holly brought in to tie in with Andrew’s Scottish heritage. I had photographs of our grandparents pinned onto my bouquet , and I carried a photograph of my Aunt who recently passed away so that they were with us on our special day.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

We had the fabulous Top Table catering on the day and they couldn’t have been better. Annette organised the day wonderfully, ensuring every last detail was executed to perfection! I’ve had texts, phone calls and emails galore saying how wonderful they all were and that the food was amazing! They really are a brilliant team and couldn’t recommend them highly enough.

.

.

.

.

.

.

We gave the task of organising our wedding cake to my dad, which he did very well! We just asked for a pretty, simple cake that tasted good, and it ticked the boxes! Made by 2nice2slice in Preston.

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The entertainment was really important to us as we both love a good party and wanted everyone to dance their socks off! We chose The Coolers Band and Andy Murphy DJ to entertain and they did just that! The dance floor was never empty and everyone had a fantastic time! Even uncles who normally watch from afar were up chucking some shapes…

.

.

.

.

We’ve got a lovely 14 month old son, Thomas, so leaving him for a honeymoon wasn’t an option and we are moving to Abu Dhabi in March so we’re pretty tight on time! We did however manage to squeeze our first night away together since Thomas was born and we went to The Mere Hotel and Spa in Knutsford.

.

.

.

.

.

.

My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to plan your morning so you’re all made up and hair done a good hour before you have to leave. The last moments before you walk down the aisle are so precious and you need time to treasure them with those that mean the most around you (and if you’ve chosen your girls well, you’ll have a few tears and a bloody good laugh!) Oh, and Pinterest is fabulous for getting together lots of ideas…